The Joe Wilson Resolution

September 15, 2009 - by Donny Shaw

UPDATE: The resolution has been adopted by a vote on 240-179. See below for more detailed vote information.

Original post:

The House is preparing to vote this afternoon on a symbolic resolution to condemn Rep. Addision “Joe” Wilson [R, SC-2] for shouting “You lie!” at President Obama during his healthcare speech to a joint session of Congress last week. See video of the incident here.

Whereas on September 9, 2009, during the joint session of Congress convened pursuant to House Concurrent Resolution 179, the President of the United States, speaking at the invitation of the House and Senate, had his remarks interrupted by the Representative from South Carolina, Mr. Wilson; and

Whereas the conduct of the Representative from South Carolina was a breach of decorum and degraded the proceedings of the joint session, to the discredit of the House: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives disapproves of the behavior of the Representative from South Carolina, Mr. Wilson, during the joint session of Congress held on September 9, 2009.

House Republican Leader John Boehner is urging Republicans to vote against the resolution, arguing that Wilson has already apologized to the President and that the resolution sets a bad precedent of nitpicking behavior. But Democrats argue that the decorum rules of the House specifically ban this kind of behavior and that the rules must be enforced.

UPDATE: The resolution has officially been passed by the House.

The final vote tally was 240-179, with 7 Republicans siding with Democrats on the resolution to condemn Wilson, and 12 Democrats voting with Republicans against it. Five Democrats voted “present.”

I’ll update again as soon as the full roll call details are available online.

See our Twitter List

OpenCongress allows anyone to follow legislation in Congress, from bill introduction to floor vote. Learn more about issues you care about and connect with others who share similar views.
OpenCongress was founded by the Participatory Politics Foundation in 2007 and operated as a joint project with the Sunlight Foundation until May 2013.

Founded in 2006, the Sunlight Foundation is a nonpartisan nonprofit that advocates for open government globally and uses technology to make government more accountable to all. Visit SunlightFoundation.com to learn more.

Like this project and want to discover others like it?

Join the Sunlight Foundation's open government community to learn more.